The Birth of Esau and Jacob

¹⁹ These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: ^(A)Abraham fathered Isaac, ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, ^(B)the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of ^(C)Paddan-aram, ^(D)the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And ^(E)the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²² The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?”^[a] So she went ^(F)to inquire of the Lord. ²³ And the Lord said to her,

²⁴ When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ The first came out red, ^(J)all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with ^(K)his hand holding Esau's heel, so ^(L)his name was called Jacob.^[c] Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau was ^(M)a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, ^(N)dwelling in tents. ²⁸ Isaac loved Esau because ^(O)he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. ³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.^[d]) ³¹ Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” ³² Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” ³³ Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and ^(P)sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

God's Promise to Isaac

26 Now there was a famine in the land, besides ^(Q)the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to ^(R)Abimelech king of the ^(S)Philistines. ² And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell ^(T)in the land of which I shall tell you. ^3 (U)Sojourn in this land, and ^(V)I will be with you and will bless you, for ^(W)to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(X)the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. ^4 (Y)I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And ^(Z)in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, ⁵ because ^(AA)Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Isaac and Abimelech

⁶ So Isaac settled in Gerar. ⁷ When the men of the place asked him about his wife, ^(AB)he said, “She is my sister,” for ^(AC)he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because ^(AD)she was attractive in appearance. ⁸ When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with^[e] Rebekah his wife. ⁹ So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” ¹⁰ Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and ^(AE)you would have brought guilt upon us.” ¹¹ So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹² And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord ^(AF)blessed him, ¹³ and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. ¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines ^(AG)envied him. ¹⁵ (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells ^(AH)that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) ¹⁶ And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. ¹⁸ And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And ^(AI)he gave them the names that his father had given them. ¹⁹ But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, ²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar ^(AJ)quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek,^[f] because they contended with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.^{[g] 22} And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,^[h] saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

²³ From there he went up to Beersheba. ²⁴ And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, ^(AK)“I am the God of Abraham your father. ^(AL)Fear not, for ^(AM)I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” ²⁵ So he ^(AN)built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶ When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and ^(AO)Phicol the commander of his army, ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and ^(AP)have sent me away from you?” ²⁸ They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, ²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. ^(AQ)You are now the blessed of the Lord.” ³⁰ So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹ In the morning they rose early and ^(AR)exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. ³² That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³ He called it Shibah;^[i] therefore the name of the city is ^(AS)Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took ^(AT)Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, ³⁵ and ^(AU)they made life bitter^[j] for Isaac and Rebekah.

In the Shadow of Your Wings

A ^(A)Prayer of David.